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by cardiffspaceman
3372 days ago
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This is the 12-parsec problem. Jokes that work within the reality of their subject matter work. Jokes that have to go however slightly out of the reality of their subject matter to work, never work for the people you would think would most like them. Star Wars was cooking along making all its little references to Flash Gordon and so forth and then along comes this line of dialog that was not even meant as humor, whose only obvious reading is a complete misuse of the word "parsec" [1]. Which practically the whole audience had a problem with. (I want to say "literally the whole audience" and this here is how I'm trying to get away with it) I have only once successfully told a joke to a medical professional that had to do with medicine. I make a lot of jokes that are meant as satires of ignorance, and that audience always just wants to correct the ignorance (which is a good thing). [1] The line is technically using the word correctly but you have to know 40 years of Star Wars lore to know why. |
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> The line is technically using the word correctly but you have to know 40 years of Star Wars lore to know why.
That Han skirted closer to a black hole than anyone else, and that's why a unit of distance is appropriate? But I'm not sure if I've ever seen a canonical source for that, it's just fan rationalization :)
I suppose it's better than the "Han is trying to brag, but he's an idiot" rationalization, which is a bit hard to swallow considering he's otherwise a fairly capable pilot.